ADRIAN — Three Macomb County men convicted of a 2002 drive-by murder in Adrian are to be returned to Lenawee County Circuit Court in January for a hearing on evidence their attorneys claim as grounds for a new trial.

Attorneys for twin brothers Paul Daniel and Peter Daniel, 46, and for Leonard Dee McGlown, 46, met Monday in chambers with Circuit Judge Margaret M.S. Noe and Assistant Lenawee County Prosecutor Jonathan Poer. The attorneys agreed to another conference on Jan. 7 ahead of an evidentiary hearing ordered in November by the Michigan Court of Appeals.

The subject of the hearing is whether restraints the three defendants wore at trial prejudiced their cases.

A number of other appeal issues in the case are pending in the Court of Appeals, depending on how Noe rules in January.

Noe ordered Monday that the Daniel twins and McGlown be brought from prison to attend the evidentiary hearing on Jan. 24 and 25.

The defendants may ask Noe for a new trial after the two-day hearing, according to the Court of Appeals orders that remanded the case to circuit court.

All three men were sentenced in November last year to mandatory life prison terms without parole. They were found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy and firearms charges after a trial in October last year that featured separate juries for the Daniel twins and for McGlown.

The three were accused of shooting Marcus Newsom, 20, of Adrian, the night of Feb. 9, 2002. Newsom was alone in a car stopped at Park and College streets when he was struck by a volley of shots that witnesses said were fired from a van that sped away.

The Daniel twins and McGlown were in the back of a van when it was stopped by police minutes later as it was being driven out of Adrian.

The shooting was reported to be a case of mistaken identity. The defendants were reportedly seeking another Detroit-area man involved in a dispute with the Daniel family.